Network Printer - A Heart-Warming Story & Personal Review

After our faithful if splodgy Epson Stylus 580 gave up the ghost
last Saturday we needed a new budget printer for our wired home
network (three Windows machines). I remembered reading a review,
sometime this year, of an HP printer that came with a built in
server at a reasonable price.

After Googling around I found it to be the HP Deskjet 6620. The
printer is not small but it is a solid and well designed machine. As
I said it comes with a print server built in plus USB and
PictBridge. It has a well designed paper cartridge that includes an
envelope feed.

Setting up on the network was very straightforward - you need to set
a static IP address outside the range covered by your router and
then put that address in the trusted zone of any firewall you may
have on the individual machines. Finally, the print software was
installed on each machine on the network and we were away!

I have to say that HP have got this process sown up, as they ought
with their years of networked printer design. The 6620 comes with a
2m CAT5 lead and inks but no USB lead. There is software for Windows
and Mac, importantly - you don't install any extra software unless
you select it.

How much? It was delivered to me for less than £100, you would be
lucky to get a print server for less than £60! I also have to hand
it to Dabs.com - I ordered the printer on Sunday afternoon and was
installing it on Tuesday evening!

Oh, print quality is pretty good too!


Charlie.
(who works for a law firm not HP!)



--
Broadcasting to the environs
www.radiowymsey.org

On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 22:31:44 +0000, Management
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>After our faithful if splodgy Epson Stylus 580 gave up the ghost
>last Saturday we needed a new budget printer for our wired home
>network (three Windows machines). I remembered reading a review,
>sometime this year, of an HP printer that came with a built in
>server at a reasonable price.
>
>After Googling around I found it to be the HP Deskjet 6620. The
>printer is not small but it is a solid and well designed machine. As
> I said it comes with a print server built in plus USB and
>PictBridge. It has a well designed paper cartridge that includes an
>envelope feed.
>
>Setting up on the network was very straightforward - you need to set
>a static IP address outside the range covered by your router and
>then put that address in the trusted zone of any firewall you may
>have on the individual machines. Finally, the print software was
>installed on each machine on the network and we were away!
>
>I have to say that HP have got this process sown up, as they ought
>with their years of networked printer design. The 6620 comes with a
>2m CAT5 lead and inks but no USB lead. There is software for Windows
>and Mac, importantly - you don't install any extra software unless
>you select it.
>
>How much? It was delivered to me for less than £100, you would be
>lucky to get a print server for less than £60! I also have to hand
>it to Dabs.com - I ordered the printer on Sunday afternoon and was
>installing it on Tuesday evening!
>
>Oh, print quality is pretty good too!
>
>
>Charlie.
>(who works for a law firm not HP!)
I hope it continues! HP Deskjet drivers (600 series and 800 series)
are probably the worst I have ever had the misfortune to use. As a
simple example, a Powerpoint presentation of 11 slides would print in
any combination, provided slide 4 was not printed - the solution was
to use any non-HP inkjet on the network!

PeeGee wrote:

>
> I hope it continues! HP Deskjet drivers (600 series and 800 series)
> are probably the worst I have ever had the misfortune to use. As a
> simple example, a Powerpoint presentation of 11 slides would print in
> any combination, provided slide 4 was not printed - the solution was
> to use any non-HP inkjet on the network!

That's bummer Maybe they did some work on the drivers! So far we
have printed from OpenOffice 2, Word 2000, IrfanView & Photoshop
without any problems.


Charlie.


--
Broadcasting to the environs
www.radiowymsey.org

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, PeeGee
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>I hope it continues! HP Deskjet drivers (600 series and 800 series)
>are probably the worst I have ever had the misfortune to use. As a
>simple example, a Powerpoint presentation of 11 slides would print in
>any combination, provided slide 4 was not printed - the solution was
>to use any non-HP inkjet on the network!
I've had a similar problem with a Word document, turns out the 'expert'
who installed the printer didn't have the CD to hand so he downloaded
the drivers. Problem was he got drivers for a slightly different model,
they worked for 99% of his documents, just this one Word document would
hang up the printer. Loaded the correct ones, off he went.
--
Clint Sharp

On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 17:02:57 +0000, Management
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>PeeGee wrote:
>
>>
>> I hope it continues! HP Deskjet drivers (600 series and 800 series)
>> are probably the worst I have ever had the misfortune to use. As a
>> simple example, a Powerpoint presentation of 11 slides would print in
>> any combination, provided slide 4 was not printed - the solution was
>> to use any non-HP inkjet on the network!
>
>That's bummer Maybe they did some work on the drivers! So far we
>have printed from OpenOffice 2, Word 2000, IrfanView & Photoshop
>without any problems.
>
>
>Charlie.
It's not all gloom and doom - maybe a 1% failure rate! I never managed
to determine the actual cause of failure, in terms of content.
PeeGee
--
The reply address is a spam trap. If you need to reply directly, put the UK where it should be - first.

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 21:24:28 +0000, Clint Sharp
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, PeeGee
><(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>>I hope it continues! HP Deskjet drivers (600 series and 800 series)
>>are probably the worst I have ever had the misfortune to use. As a
>>simple example, a Powerpoint presentation of 11 slides would print in
>>any combination, provided slide 4 was not printed - the solution was
>>to use any non-HP inkjet on the network!
>I've had a similar problem with a Word document, turns out the 'expert'
>who installed the printer didn't have the CD to hand so he downloaded
>the drivers. Problem was he got drivers for a slightly different model,
>they worked for 99% of his documents, just this one Word document would
>hang up the printer. Loaded the correct ones, off he went.
Could be - there are a number of CDs for each printer model, with
different revisions of the drivers. However, each model has the
appropriate driver, though using the "newest" version (all printing
done via a central print server).

PeeGee
--
The reply address is a spam trap. If you need to reply directly, put the UK where it should be - first.